FSBOAlaska.com offers this free tutorial to help educate people in the process of buying and selling a home for sale by owner. Educating yourself in real estate gives you an advantage in buying or selling a property with or without an agent. Buying a home is usually the largest financial transaction in a person’s life and gaining knowledge in this area can be beneficial. The more you know about buying or selling a home gives you the opportunity to make smart decisions and simplify the process.

FSBOAlaska.com has helped hundreds of homeowners successfully sell their home for sale by owner. We have also helped a large number of homeowners sell on their own paying a reduced commission with our popular flat fee Alaska MLS program. Instead of paying 6% in Realtor commissions, we offer the most popular way to list your home on the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for a flat fee of $299.00 and a free listing on www.FsboAlaska.com. Instead of paying the typical 6% commission, you only pay 2%-3% to agents who bring you buyers. Flat fee MLS home sellers usually have a better chance to sell their home vs. listing with a 6% agent by having more opportunity to negotiate by offering to pay more in closing costs, allowances, etc…

When you are selling FSBO, there are several important factors to consider and be successful selling your home without an agent.

First and most important is price:

We have seen FSBO homeowners list their home too high, thinking that they can reduce the price at a later date. This may be a mistake, by not pricing your home competitively in the beginning, and sellers sometimes get frustrated and end up listing with an agent. Typically agents, who list these unsuccessful FSBO homes, inflate the price of the home to pay for their commission and end up reducing the price back to the original price of the FSBO home and the only person who loses in the end is the homeowner. If the homeowner would have initially adjusted the price of the home a few thousand below other the other agent listings that were similar to their homes in the neighborhood, they would have had a greater chance of selling the property.

Sellers who overprice a home deters potential buyers to walk away from a home without making an offer, and the first couple weeks being on the market is the most important time in the process. After a month or more of being on the market overpriced, the home becomes stale because and buyers may begin to make negative comments to others about it being overpriced. Also, if it is still on the market for several months, people may believe that something is wrong with the property because it has not sold. Buyers knowing that the property has been on the market this long, assume that the sellers are desperate and may make very low offers.

How to price your home effectively?

1. Check for other properties for sale in your neighborhood to see the features, square footage, and other comparables to help you make a decision of what to sell your home for.
2. Use a free Realtor market analysis from the local MLS.
3. Research local online municipal records and tax records for real estate values such as www.muni.org
4. Hire a certified appraiser to value your property for fair market value. This service costs around $500 and can help. It also may be tax deductible as a home selling expense. We offer a list of appraisers under the service directory here.
   

   As noted above, many sellers price their home too high in the beginning, with the idea that they will drop their price at a later date. This practice may not be a good idea, and you should always try to price your home effectively in the beginning. If you overprice your property, you probably will get offers much lower that you like and when it finally sells you save your self-time and money.

Buyers are usually very knowledgeable with the current market and usually have been shopping for properties for quite some time. Price your home effectively and you will be one step closer to getting your home sold without having to pay the typical 6% in commissions.

For sale by owner Alaska can help you save the commission and give more opportunities to first time homebuyers. There are a lot of homebuyers that cannot afford putting the typical FHA minimum amount of 3% down on a home. Homeowners who sell with typical 6% agents may not have room to offer to pay closing costs and the agent, unless the agent reduces their commission or to raise the price of the home. FSBO homeowners have the potential to get their home sold with a larger audience of buyers while keeping the price of the home competitive.

FsboAlaska.com has helped hundreds of homeowners save millions in commissions.

Why sell FSBO?

Saving money is an important factor. Usually a home is the largest investment in a person’s life and many realize that giving away 6%-7% in commissions to agents who often just shuffle paperwork is unnecessary. For example: if you sell a $300,000 home with an agent, you will end up paying approximately $16,000 in commissions. When you sell your home on your own you are in control and who knows more about your home than you. Typically, you can host an open house with a more flexible schedule than an agent can. Usually agents have more than one property that they need to sell and you may not be the most important one on their list.

Home Selling Tips

Open Houses - Preparing your home for a showing can be one of your key opportunities to close the sale of your home. Your homes first impression is crucial. When preparing your home for a showing, make sure you pay special attention to its appearance.

1. Schedule showing at least 30 minutes apart from one another.
2. Thoroughly clean your home.
3. Log in the names of potential homebuyers with a sign in sheet, which you can follow up with at a later date.
4. Make sure your home is organized and does not look cluttered including closets.
5. Turn lights on for visitors in all the rooms and open curtains/blinds to allow as much light into your house as possible.
6. Make sure your home does not have any unpleasant smells by using a candle or scent prior to showing your home to buyers.
7. Be knowledgeable about all the features of your home and the neighborhood.
8. Keep the outside of your home tidy by having the lawn mowed, leaves raked or snow shoveled.
9. Hide any valuable items in a safe area out of sight.
10. Be kind and patient to potential buyers.

Why sell using FSBOAlaska.com?

Now offering Free FSBO listings! It's Free (we promise!) We also offer reasonably priced services vs. the local competition.

FsboAlaska.com provides similar services as working with a Realtor® without having to pay the typical 6%-7% in agent commissions.

Be wary of local so-called “FSBO” companies who are run by agents or brokers, their primary goal is to see you fail in order to get you to sign up with a higher priced service or to charge large up front fees to replace commissions. When using FsboAlaska.com, you only pay for services that you need when selling your home.

Click here to compare what we offer vs. our local competition or listing with an agent.

Flat Fee MLS listing for $299 – List your home with the most popular flat fee MLS listing company in Alaska. Includes a listing on the local multiple listing service, Realtor.com® and FSBOAlaska.com. The local multiple listing service is a statewide database of properties for sale that is used by the Agents and Brokers.

Professional Yard Signs – We offer a basic yard sign package including a standard 18x24 yard sign and one directional sign.
User Friendly Website – FsboAlaska.com offers powerful automated features for homebuyers and sellers to include: Auto-notification feature, searchable database, RSS feeds, Save to favorites feature and more.
Marketing Tools – We offer a variety of tools to market your property including: flyer boxes, printable flyers, featured listings, directional and open house signs, and reasonably priced services.

Before you sign up with an Agent to give away 6% to 7% of the hard earned equity of your home, visit FSBOAlaska.com or call (907) 764-FSBO to give yourself the opportunity to save thousands of dollars in commissions!

"These statements provided are intended to be a general guide, not legal advice. Check with the Alaska real estate regulatory agency here for any questions regarding the buying, selling, renting or any other issues involving real estate transactions."